One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors:
Plato

Thursday, September 11, 2008

So far the Liberals are losing

The first five days of the election campaign have been boring, uninspiring and pointless.The campaign has been dominated by the trivial, from Liberal airplanes, to Pooping Puffins to Lizzie May in the debates. I know it is not a popular view but I am really pissed off that almost two whole days of the campaign were about her and the debates. There are so many other issues that we should be talking about. Issues that effect the lives and livelihood of Canadians but instead of addressing them we have two days Liz May bitching about being left out of the debates dominating the conversation. Who cares? Obviously my priorities for this election are much different from others.Neither of the two big parties has done anything to grab the attention of Canadians. They have made some announcements that will not penetrate the Canadian consciousness one iota. Both are running low-key campaigns. As well, neither really has a campaign theme. All of these announcements seem to be just random promises.In such a situation the advantage goes to the incumbent.Some have commented the media seems to be giving the Conservatives a pass on their gaffe-a-day campaign. They are complaining and wondering why. Considering how the media treated the Liberals during the 2004 and 2006 election and since the last election they should not be surprised. If they were thinking that the media would suddenly become more balanced during the campaign they were dreaming. I thought the media might have grown a pair and pushed back at the Conservatives for the shabby treatment they have received at the hands of that party but such is not the case. Our MSM really is populated by a bunch of wimps.My biggest fear is the braintrust of the Liberal Party is also expecting fair and balanced reporting by our MSM. If so they are screwed.Further, the first round of election polls are due to come out this weekend with one due as early as tomorrow. Mark my words, they will not be kind to the Liberals so the media narrative next week will be the Conservatives have the momentum and considering the week the Conservatives have had the media will add the twist that they have the momentum DESPITE a lacklustre first week.The Liberal Party has to get ahead of this and the only way to do it is to give the media the Shawinigan handshake. They have to force them out of their complacency. They have to force them to rethink their narrative.To do so they have to have a two pronged attack. First they have to announce a big policy plank or two that are different but complementary to the Green Shift Plan and they need to announce them in the next day or two. The Plan is old news and it does not grab anybody's attention anymore. A major plank about the economy and a major plank directed at Quebec would do the trick. Beginning to articulate an actual campaign theme would be a good start too.Second, they need to highlight the brutal record and scandals of the Conservatives with a high impact ad campaign and they need to do that before the weekend. If they do so during the coming media narrative they will be accused of being desperate. They need to do it before that narrative really begins to develop.Ads about the "In-and-Out Scheme", the Cadman Affair, the Bernier Affair and the Nafta Affair would be a good start. And they need to make a decent ad buy. I have yet to see the Green Shift ad on TV. I have turned off the Stephen Harper sweater vest ads on more occasions than I can count but nada for The Green Shift. There is no use producing ads if you do not bother with an inadequate ad buy. Oh yes, the internet does not cut it. It still only reaches a fraction of what the MSM reaches.If the Liberals really want to win this thing they have to kick it into another gear and they need to do so now.Update: A third prong in their attack is they have to start doing things to make Stephen Harper mad. He does not take criticism well so they have to start piling it on. In all cases it has to be issue based and not personal.